Smart phones will never be able to do nature photography so a smart plan for Nikon and Canon would be to get going on releasing kick-ass crop cameras with state-of-the-art AF and multi-fps.

That is a market they can serve well and grow.

Funny thing. It's the one market Nikon isn't serving at all right now (other than the $6k D4). Where are the D700 and D300 upgrades that people use for long reach action photography? If you don't have $6k for a camera, Nikon hasn't produced a newly designed camera for this segment in 6 years. Yes, that's 6 years. And coincidentally, that's how long it's been since I last bought a new body from Nikon.

I agree with your observation. If there are any markets that Nikon should serve, it would be the ones that dSLRs have unique advantage at.